The Stimulus Is A Failure: Guess Whose Fault It Is?

We said “Don’t pass the Generational Theft Act. It is laden with pork, most of it doesn’t actually kick in until, surprisingly, an election year, and it is basically a decades long wish list of Democrat wants, among others. We can’t back something that is going to mortgage the future of America’s children and grandchildren.” And when it does absolutely nothing, any guesses as to whose fault it is? Steve Benen of The Political Animal blames, you guessed it, Republicans

A DECISION THAT LOOKS EVEN WORSE IN RETROSPECT…. In February, when the debate over the economic stimulus package was at its height, a handful of “centrist” Senate Republicans said they’d block a vote on recovery efforts unless the majority agreed to slash over $100 billion from the bill.

The group, which didn’t have any specific policy goals in mind and simply liked the idea of a small bill, specifically targeted $40 billion in proposed aid to states. Helping rescue states, Sen. Collins & Co. said, does not stimulate the economy, and as such doesn’t belong in the legislation. Democratic leaders reluctantly went along — they weren’t given a choice since Republicans refused to give the bill an up-or-down vote — and the $40 billion in state aid was eliminated.

Remember how many times we heard “the buck stops here” regarding Bush when it was some low level government beauracrat or recently out of training soldier who made a boo boo? It was all Bush’s fault, and he needed to take responsibility? Now we have the Senate, the House, and the Executive Office controlled by Democrats, and a horrendous bill passed by Democrats, and it is the fault of Republicans that a $787 billion piece of crap, er, legislation, has failed. Because of $40 billion in state aid that was removed.

Hey, three Republicans voted for it in the Senate. That means the Democrats own that piece of crap, er, legislation, lock, stock, and barrel. Man up, Democrats, and own the failure.

If there is any stimulus money going into infrastructure and green construction, it is not evident from the numbers, because construction lost 64,000 jobs – more than the perennial loser, manufacturing. Even heavy and civil engineering construction, the group that would be building roads and bridges, saw a decline of 11,900 jobs.

In the past, government hiring had managed to somewhat offset losses in the private sector, but government jobs declined by 53,000, with the biggest number of cuts on the local and state levels. Even the Postal Service, which is included in the public-sector job statistics, dropped 5,300 jobs.

Of course, had they started throwing the majority of the $787 billion out immediately – you remember when Obama said there was no time to wait, we had to do this NOW, so no one could read the bill, otherwise we would head into The Great Depression Part II (then he waited 4 days and flew to Denver to sign it) – things might have been different. Alas, we shall never know, since a measly 6% has been spent. Perhaps that is why people are more concerned with government ethics and corruption a tiny bit more than the economy.

So, man up, Democrats! We know it is difficult to move out of your safety blanket of blame someone else. But, give it a try. It was your policy and your votes. But, hey, good news! You will possibly have a second shot at Epic Fail with a second stimulus, oh, excuse me, Economic Triage.